Members of the board's budget committee on Wednesday rejected a proposed budget for the city's Public Utilities Commission, saying the mayor's plan to raid a $19.5 million PUC fund set aside for the CleanPowerSF plan isn't going to fly.

SFPUC General Manager Harlan Kelly casually disclosed the mayor's proposed money grab at a budget hearing two weeks ago, shocking supervisors who overwhelmingly support the program, which would let the city purchase its own 100 percent renewable power and use PG&E transmission lines to deliver it to customers, who could opt out. It stalled last summer when the commission, which is appointed by the mayor, refused to set rates.

A visibly angry Supervisor John Avalos said Wednesday that he won't let the PUC's budget move forward until a deal is worked out on the money. Avalos said he's tried to reach out to Lee and met with PUC officials before the meeting, but hasn't been given any written alternatives to the mayor's plan, which calls for the money to be spent on streetlights and subsidies for solar installations on private property instead. He read a text message he sent to the mayor Sunday evening, but said there's been "radio silence."

"I'm trying to avoid a train wreck," he said. "I feel we are headed toward a cliff."

That cliff is still months off: The city's budget doesn't have to be approved until the end of July.

The committee voted 3-2 to table the budget instead of continuing the item, which requires Lee to resubmit the agency's entire budget proposal to the board. Supervisors Avalos, Eric Mar and London Breed voted in favor of sending the budget back, while Supervisors Mark Farrell and Scott Wiener voted against, saying they would rather continue the item.

Lee's budget director, Kate Howard, also asked for a continuance. She said the mayor's office worked closely with the PUC to develop its budget proposal.

Farrell suggested that the board may be able to have it both ways, by funding the clean energy program with other PUC budget cuts. But Avalos said he's not sure that would be possible and doesn't trust the mayor to negotiate.

Later, the mayor's office issued this statement to The Chronicle: "Far from a money grab, these are sound budget decisions that help the PUC invest in the backbone of the city's power system as well as fund immediate activities that put San Franciscans back to work through a Gosolar program."

- Marisa Lagos

Hiring line: It has become a ritual of San Francisco summers as reliable as parents scrambling to get their kids into day camps and the chance to see inappropriately dressed tourists shivering under "SF" logo fleeces.

We're talking, of course, about Mayor Ed Lee's summer jobs program.

For the third year in a row, Lee is asking the city's businesses to hire thousands of teens and young adults in paid positions, with a focus on low-income and disadvantaged youth.

In 2012, the goal was 5,000 positions. This year it's 7,000. At Wednesday's City Hall kickoff, businesses, nonprofits and city departments committed to hiring 4,731 young people ages 14 to 24. Just another 2,269 to go.

"Youth suffer from some of the highest unemployment rates," said Lee's spokeswoman, Christine Falvey. "This gives them an extra chance."

Lee got the idea for Summer Jobs+ from the Obama administration, which challenged the country in 2012 to create 250,000 summer jobs for low-income and disconnected youth.

The city has folded in summer jobs programs that it already ran, which provide about 2,500 youth positions annually. Several large corporations or their foundations, including JPMorgan Chase and Pacific Gas and Electric Co., are chipping in $200,000 or more each, funds that are used to subsidize internships elsewhere and job training programs that are run through United Way of the Bay Area.